Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) could develop the best smartphone in the world, but it won't get anywhere without great apps.

Ian Fogg, Director of Mobile & Telecoms at IHS Technology (NYSE: IHS), believes that app acquisition is one of the biggest challenges that Amazon will face.

"I think the challenge for Amazon is that the smartphone market is really, really competitive," Fogg told Benzinga. "They have some differentiating features with its Dynamic Perspective. But for that to be compelling, they need developers to support it with games and other applications written specifically for it."

Fogg is concerned that game developers and other third-party app makers will look at the Fire Phone and wonder how many units are actually out there. Bear in mind that Amazon does not like to reveal how many Kindle devices it has sold, nor will it say exactly how many people subscribe to Amazon Prime.

If there aren't many consumers buying Fire Phones (again, it could be difficult to gauge how many units are actually sold), Fogg said that app developers are less likely to take advantage of its unique features.

Fogg also said that by signing an exclusive deal with AT&T, "that caps the maximum addressable audience for them."

"That makes it very hard to reach scale," he said.

All About The Apps

Apps are so important that Fogg suggested Amazon could pay for third-party developers to create new applications for the Fire Phone.

"It's the apps that make a smartphone smart," said Fogg. "You can go so far with your own in-house apps. But to make it compelling, you need to have a wide range of third-party apps, which are running really well on your smartphone."

As a new entrant, Fogg believes that Amazon has to be better than its opposition. They have to inspire developers to take advantage of the Fire Phone's unique capabilities.